The wall-to-wall Charlie Sheen coverage by national news outlets is getting out of hand.

Let us remember: We are at war. The United States has lost 1,493 sons and daughters in the war in Afghanistan, and it could lose the 1,500th any day now.

What about the crew?

In those interviews, one thing that isn’t asked of Sheen is how he feels about what he has done to the people who are out of jobs with the show “Two and a Half Men.” Sure, the cast members, producers and directors make plenty of money. They will be fine no matter what happens.

But the show also provided steady incomes for writers and, in particular, the crew members. These blue-collar folks were fortunate enough to work on the top-rated sitcom on television, and one man’s selfish behavior messed up a good thing.

The show’s producer agreed to pay the crew for four episodes, but that doesn’t compare to the revenue all of next season they had been counting on.

We hope the news focus on Sheen will go away. We hope the show continues with someone else, perhaps not replacing Sheen’s character outright, but a character who can take the plot in a new direction.

On Charlie himself

OK, thanks to the wall-to-wall coverage, we do know that Sheen had a big falling out with the show’s producer, Chuck Lorre. A lot of the disagreement had to do with Lorre regularly telling Sheen to behave, keep it together, stay sober or some sort of cautionary talk. Sheen didn’t like it one bit.

To that, we say Sheen ought to go try to hold down a regular job like all the rest of us. Lorre indeed is Sheen’s boss and absolutely has the right to admonish Sheen for the sake of keeping the show viable, just the same as any boss at a business has the right to request employees to behave appropriately.

What Sheen fails to realize is most average Americans are not in agreement with him. They see him as someone born in the TV and film industry (his dad is Martin Sheen), got good breaks all his life, makes serious dinero, spends his dinero on partying hard, wants more dinero and is a big whiner because his boss wants him to behave.

Winning? No, Charlie Sheen, you are losing. Do us a favor and fade into infamy.

– The Albert Lea Tribune